recent searches

News

South Carolina Peach, Georgia Blueberry Crops Ravaged by Deep Freeze

Last week’s deep freeze in the Southeast appears to have nearly wiped out Georgia’s blueberries and South Carolina’s peaches and seriously damaged a number of other crops like strawberries and apples.

In South Carolina, 85 percent of the state’s peach crop is gone while the small pink blooms remain on the trees, according to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.

Up to 80 percent of south Georgia’s blueberry crop is gone, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black said after touring the state late last week.

Between the two states, crop losses from the freeze could approach $1 billion, officials said.

Georgia might be the Peach State, but blueberries have recently passed peaches in value. Blueberries ripen faster in the warmer climate and can get into store quicker than traditional blueberry growing regions further north. But not this year.

“We saw blueberry fields that had the potential to be the biggest and best crop of Georgia’s production history that you would now not be able to find enough blueberries that survived the cold to make one pie,” Black said.

Temperatures dipped into the 20s both Wednesday and Thursday morning. While mid-March freezes aren’t unusual in much of the Southeast, many crops were blooming up to three weeks early because of the unusually mild winter.

South Carolina is the second biggest peach producer in the United States behind only California. Foodies are especially drawn to the state’s peaches, considering them the juiciest and highest quality in the nation.

Both states reported some damage to strawberries. North Carolina farmers said apples blooming earlier than usual were hurt by the freeze.

Officials said it is the most damaging freeze for the Southeast since the 2007 Easter freeze in early April where a similar cold snap destroyed 90 percent of South Carolina’s peaches and caused closed to $1 billion in crop damage across the region.

Show Privacy & Non-Discrimination Statements
The insurance products described by Producers Ag Insurance Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“ProAg®”) may not be a complete list of all products offered and may not be offered in all states. ProAg prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, disability, political beliefs, and marital or familial status.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or a part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD).